


"apollo? nice name"

by oddlyqueer



Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Trans Enjolras, Trans Female Character, Trans Male Character, trans jehan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-29 21:40:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18302429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oddlyqueer/pseuds/oddlyqueer
Summary: a couple of warnings: some heteronormativity, self-harm references, and insecurity/body dysphoria, and completely non-edited fic





	"apollo? nice name"

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vivelapluto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vivelapluto/gifts).



> a couple of warnings: some heteronormativity, self-harm references, and insecurity/body dysphoria, and completely non-edited fic

“Mama, what do these words mean?”

“They are what the woman who loves you will first say to you,” she says, distracted by her cooking. Tiny Rene, sitting on the floor, frowns at them. He can’t quite tell what they say at the moment, there are too many big words. 

“But Mama, what if the person who loves me isn’t a girl?”

“Now don’t talk about that kind of thing,” she admonishes quickly. “Your wife will be your soulmate, your beautiful girl, and you will marry her, like your father and I did before you, and you’ll have children together like everyone else.”

— 

“Mom, why are there only three words on mine? You have so many.”

“Some people just have less words than others,” she says, distracted by her work. “It’s okay that the person who’s your soulmate is less wordy than your father was for me.”

The little kid frowns at his wrist. He can read these words, can understand them on their own, but it doesn’t make sense to him. That isn’t his name.

— 

Rene gets older. He’s a short kid, kind of chubby. Everyone makes fun of him when he’s younger. Short, fat, Rene, who always sits in the corner drawing.

His soulmate wouldn’t want a guy like him.

When he reads those words, they just make him mad.  _ Thanks, I picked it myself.  _ He doesn’t know what they mean. He stares at them every night, angry. 

—

The child gets older. Everyone in school is mean. They tease the kid for being too quiet, too closed off, too angry. 

He covers up his soulmate words with a Band-aid.

He chooses a name. No one uses it. He doesn’t notice how his soulmate tattoo has the same name on it.

—

He gets older. In middle school, his friend Jean finds his soulmate. Then she becomes Jehan, and her soulmate is kind and accepting and everything a soulmate should be. 

It’s the last day of eighth grade and six people in his grade have met their soulmates. Rene remains tragically soulmate-less. He pulls out a razor. He hates those words on his wrist, hates them with a passion, and if he covers them enough with scars that they’re illegible, maybe they’ll go away and stop giving him the false hope that he’ll have a soulmate.

— 

He gets older again. No one uses his name. He cuts his hair short and goes to an informed consent clinic. They say that he can start testosterone soon. He still doesn’t tell his parents about anything. Apollo is a ridiculous name, but it’s his, and he doesn’t hate it like he does his other name. One day, he peels off the gauze that he keeps continually wrapped around his wrist. 

_ Apollo? Nice name. _

— 

The high school drama club isn’t exactly the highest level of the social hierarchy, but Apollo still joins as one of the sound board workers. It’s not hard work, but he likes it, and watching the shows take shape is pretty fun. Another guy, Claude, works the sound board with him. He’s still working on the soulmate thing, too. 

Rene isn’t the best actor in the world, but he’s one of the best guy actors in the school and he can sing reasonably well, so he usually gets cast as a lead. Plus the guy who does sound is really, really cute.

They don’t really talk that much, but at the cast party, they end up sitting next to each other by the shitty punch that’s literally just from a bottle.

Rene looks at his name tag.

“Apollo? Nice name.”

He scoffs. “Thanks, I picked it myself,” he says with a sneer.

“Wow. Not really how I expected that to be said,” he says, pulling the hoodie sleeve down. “So, uh… is your name really Apollo?” 

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! as always, comments and kudos appreciated.


End file.
